International law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words - 1

International law - Essay Example International law sets the limits on and relations between and among states. International law is not a new concept. Keep in mind that rudimentary international law was evident as far back of the fourth millennium B.C, when belligerents consented to observe truces for holidays and other similar situations. Homer\s The Iliad and Thucydides\s The Peloponnesian Wars are abounding with references to armistices, acceptance of heralds in addition to other customary standard behaviour connecting peaceful or warring parties. But is should also be remembered that such references are equally filled with instances of agreements being dishonoured. Modern international law, customary international law being part of it, gradually evolved as states gained status. Denial S Papp1 states that Hugo Grotius is usually taken note of as the father of modern international law with references to his work, On the Law of War and Peace, published in 1662. His publication paved the laying of the foundations of the rights and responsibilities that states are obligated to each other. It is on the writings of Grotius that the entire systems of treaties, tribunals as well as similar codes of international conduct take their extraction. From the readings of Grotius’s publications, at least four separate interpretations of what international law is, exist.2 These include: the naturalist school of law exemplified by Samuel Pefundorf (The Law of Nature and of Nations, 1672); the positivist school of law, led by Cornelius van Bynkershoek (Forum for Ambassadors, 1721 and On Questions of Public Law, 1737); the eclectic school of law led by Emmerich de Vattel (The Law of Nations, 1758) and finally the neorealist outlook. The more general view is that states interpret and adopt whatever view of international law that best shores up the most preferred course of action. There are various sources of international law to which states can tie